diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/java/JavaRDDLike.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/java/JavaRDDLike.scala
index a5abc6f3186ff..44a797d16c996 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/java/JavaRDDLike.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/java/JavaRDDLike.scala
@@ -477,11 +477,23 @@ trait JavaRDDLike[T, This <: JavaRDDLike[T, This]] extends Serializable {
     new java.util.ArrayList(arr)
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Returns the maximum element from this RDD as defined by the specified
+   * Comparator[T].
+   * @params comp the comparator that defines ordering
+   * @return the maximum of the RDD
+   * */
   def max(comp: Comparator[T]): T = {
     import scala.collection.JavaConversions._
     rdd.max()(Ordering.comparatorToOrdering(comp))
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Returns the minimum element from this RDD as defined by the specified
+   * Comparator[T].
+   * @params comp the comparator that defines ordering
+   * @return the minimum of the RDD
+   * */
   def min(comp: Comparator[T]): T = {
     import scala.collection.JavaConversions._
     rdd.min()(Ordering.comparatorToOrdering(comp))
diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDD.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDD.scala
index bf2851839017c..f7baab83cc170 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDD.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDD.scala
@@ -958,9 +958,17 @@ abstract class RDD[T: ClassTag](
    */
   def takeOrdered(num: Int)(implicit ord: Ordering[T]): Array[T] = top(num)(ord.reverse)
 
-  def max()(implicit ord: Ordering[T]):T = this.reduce{(x,y) => ord.max(x,y)}
+  /**
+   * Returns the max of this RDD as defined by the implicit Ordering[T].
+   * @return the maximum element of the RDD
+   * */
+  def max()(implicit ord: Ordering[T]):T = this.reduce(ord.max)
 
-  def min()(implicit ord: Ordering[T]):T = this.reduce{(x,y) => ord.min(x,y)}
+  /**
+   * Returns the min of this RDD as defined by the implicit Ordering[T].
+   * @return the minimum element of the RDD
+   * */
+  def min()(implicit ord: Ordering[T]):T = this.reduce(ord.min)
 
   /**
    * Save this RDD as a text file, using string representations of elements.
diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/util/StatCounter.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/util/StatCounter.scala
index ed9dd4334e6fe..752e96c2434f7 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/util/StatCounter.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/util/StatCounter.scala
@@ -29,8 +29,8 @@ class StatCounter(values: TraversableOnce[Double]) extends Serializable {
   private var n: Long = 0     // Running count of our values
   private var mu: Double = 0  // Running mean of our values
   private var m2: Double = 0  // Running variance numerator (sum of (x - mean)^2)
-  private var max_v: Double = 0 // Running max of our values
-  private var min_v: Double = 0 // Running min of our values
+  private var max_v: Double = Double(-Infinity) // Running max of our values
+  private var min_v: Double = Double(Infinity) // Running min of our values
 
   merge(values)
 
@@ -135,7 +135,7 @@ class StatCounter(values: TraversableOnce[Double]) extends Serializable {
   def sampleStdev: Double = math.sqrt(sampleVariance)
 
   override def toString: String = {
-    "(count: %d, mean: %f, stdev: %f)".format(count, mean, stdev)
+    "(count: %d, mean: %f, stdev: %f, max: %f, min: $f)".format(count, mean, stdev, max, min)
   }
 }
 
diff --git a/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/PartitioningSuite.scala b/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/PartitioningSuite.scala
index 567d6be108749..0ef07a180a468 100644
--- a/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/PartitioningSuite.scala
+++ b/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/PartitioningSuite.scala
@@ -171,8 +171,8 @@ class PartitioningSuite extends FunSuite with SharedSparkContext with PrivateMet
     assert(abs(6.0/2 - rdd.mean) < 0.01)
     assert(abs(1.0 - rdd.variance) < 0.01)
     assert(abs(1.0 - rdd.stdev) < 0.01)
-    assert(abs(4.0 - stats.max) === 0)
-    assert(abs(-1.0 - stats.max) === 0)
+    assert(stats.max === 4.0)
+    assert(stats.min === -1.0)
 
     // Add other tests here for classes that should be able to handle empty partitions correctly
   }
diff --git a/python/pyspark/rdd.py b/python/pyspark/rdd.py
index 5f4b87abc6d25..ec547c6d29c4c 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/rdd.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/rdd.py
@@ -543,7 +543,7 @@ def max(self):
         >>> sc.parallelize([1.0, 5.0, 43.0, 10.0]).max()
         43.0
         """
-        return self.stats().max()
+        return self.reduce(max)
 
     def min(self):
         """
@@ -552,7 +552,7 @@ def min(self):
         >>> sc.parallelize([1.0, 5.0, 43.0, 10.0]).min()
         1.0
         """
-        return self.stats().min()
+        return self.reduce(min)
     
     def sum(self):
         """